Bibs are most commonly used while feeding a baby or young child. Bibs are also used by senior citizens and infirm people of all ages. Additionally, bibs are worn by patrons of restaurants.
Typically, bibs are made of cloth or paper and only protect the clothing located directly under a user's bib. Cloth bibs need to be washed and more than one bib may need to be kept on hand for use while other bibs are waiting to be cleaned.
In order to be more effective, some bibs come with permanently formed pouches located at a lower section of the bib. These pouches are intended to trap and catch solids and liquids that are spilled or dropped by the bib's user. A major problem associated with such bibs is the cleaning and upkeep of the bibs.
A proposal for solving the cleaning problem for bibs was a bib which was intended to have a temporary pouch at its lower section thereby allowing the pouch to be opened and easily wiped out and cleaned. A problem associated with this proposal would have been preventing leakage of liquids at the comers. Because the proposal's pouch was temporarily formed by folding up a lower section and bending back of corners, the pouch would not have been generally leak-proof at the corners. The formation of such a pouch could actually defeat the purpose of the bib by allowing liquid to escape at the corners of the temporary pouch.
A problem with some proposals for pouches and those that have been provided is that such a pouch does not project outwardly enough from the body of the bib user and, therefore, fails to adequately catch particles and liquids. A proposal for the pouch problem provides a stiffener within the pouch. Such a stiffener adds to the time of manufacture and cost for the bib and can also make it more difficult to clean by hindering its ability to be laid flat and wiped clean.
Another problem generally associated with bibs is conformity of the bib to the user's body. If the bib does not adequately conform to the body of the user, gaps and openings can appear between the bib and the body of the user wherein particles and liquid can actually miss the bib and come in contact with the user's clothing or body. In such instances, the bib does not achieve its intended effectiveness.